Our recommendations for Peekskill school board

May 15, 2008

On LoHud

Three candidates are vying for two open seats on the Peekskill school board; that ensures that district residents will get new voices and new ideas on the board. What they won't get is education novices.

The candidates are John "Sean" McGuinness, a longtime former board member; Joseph Urbanowicz, an Ardsley school district official with a quarter-century of school-administration experience; and Douglas Glickert, a veteran public school teacher in the Bronx who has a long history of Peekskill youth and civic service, to go along with a pair of advanced degrees in education.

All three have deep personal and family ties to the district. While McGuinness' past service has been commendable -it was on his watch that Judith Johnson was hired as superintendent - our backing goes to Urbanowicz and Glickert, for the out-of-district vision and perspective they would be able to provide the Peekskill district.

Glickert hails from a New York City school system that has seen monumental change. He wants to continue to look for ways to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom; exploit alternative energy sources, for benefit of the environment and the cost-savings; develop better character-education programs; and build on the district's academic gains. He told the Editorial Board that he was proceeding with no specific agenda, but wanted to listen to parents to discover what their needs are. He has served on parent committees, the Peekskill Education Foundation and directed other youth-centered initiatives for Peekskill youth.

Urbanowicz is the Ardsley school district's director of facilities and construction. His wife is a former teacher in the Peekskill district. Over the years, he has served on a number of Peekskill district and board committees, including the long-range planning, facilities, reorganization and athletics, and a search committee for facilities director. In the Ardsley district, he supervises large capital projects without the assistance of outside project managers; he thinks his talents would serve Peekskill on its outstanding building projects. He has also has coached Peekskill sports.

McGuinness served on the Peekskill board from 1994-2002; he was board vice president in 1995 and president from 1996-97. He helped hire Johnson, easily one of the most dynamic school chiefs in Westchester, and the purveyor of a $60 million facilities-improvement initiative that included a new middle school - a project on which work continues. His top issues: integrating the sixth grade into the middle school; getting the most utility out of the remaining grammar schools, and closing the achievement gap.

There is no question that McGuinness has much to offer the district; he has remained active in school circles since leaving the board, serving as a director of the Lower Hudson Valley Education Commission, which lobbies on behalf of Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Dutchess school boards. But we think Peekskill voters should jump at the opportunity to bring the talented new voices of Urbanowicz and Glickert, and their new ideas, into the fold.